Question

write a note on the bargain scene of The way of the world​

Answer 1

Answer:

Though Mirabell is a libertine, he admires Mrs. Millamant, a “woman who is not a fool.” Short on cash in a material world, he’s forced to live by his wits. Thus, he’s a self-aware individual in a shallow, status-conscious era, and so views his prospective lover’s failings accommodatingly: "I like her with all her faults—nay, like her for her faults. Her follies are so natural, or so artful, that they become her.”

If he can align himself in marriage with Mrs. Millamant, despite obstacles, a significant dowry is at stake. For Mrs. Millamant’s part, she is willing to be pursued and won—highly conditionally. The war of the sexes meets the war of wits. Their bargain articulates a free-spirited woman’s intent to avoid the diminishment of conventional wifely morality (and also his judgement), while he counters that she must avoid womanly vanity, provocation, artifice, and gossip, “spoiling reputations, railing at absent friends, and so forth.” The option of imbibing in...